How Does Anxiety Work?

Hi BrainStuff, it’s Cristen Conger here. Listen, I get anxious. I get

anxious. I mean, I'm anxious right now! But hey, it’s a totally normal
and healthy response, that keeps us from doing things that might
actually be dangerous, like sticking your hand in a fire. But, when
anxiety is so pervasive that it interferes with your daily life, it
becomes a disorder.

And most researchers believe that disorder begins in your brain.

There’s several types of anxiety disorders: phobias, PTSD and OCD
are just a few. But let’s focus today on “General Anxiety Disorder,”
which affects close to 7 million adults and is twice as likely in women.
Maybe you’re worried about money, health, family or work. Despite
reality, you’ll expect the worst.

The symptoms include: restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating,

irritability, muscle tension and sleep disturbances. The symptoms
officially become a disorder when you can’t control your worry for at
least 6 months. You may still be social, or even employed. Or even
hosting YouTube videos!

But people with general anxiety disorder can have difficulty carrying
out even the simplest of daily activities. Experts believe that general
anxiety disorder is caused by both biological factors and life
experiences, a combination of nature and nurture. But anxiety is also
recognized by many as an emotional response with neurobiological
roots in your brain.

Simply put, the neural pathways in our brain sometimes lead to

irrational anxiety. And stressful situations encourage us to develop
associations with those pathways, by influencing which
neurochemicals pass through them. The same way you learn to tie
your shoe, you can also learn to be anxious.

One stressful thing (like being stuck in traffic) leads you to think of
another stressful thing (like a car crash you survived), activating a part
of the brainstem called the locus ceruleus. This triggers the symptoms
of anxiety by releasing norepinephrine into your spinal cord and parts
of your brain, while hormones like adrenaline and cortisol spread
through your body.

It’s supposed to initiate an analgesic response, to suppress pain and

initiate defense when you’re under threat. Like, if you were actually in
a car crash and injured. But when there isn’t an actual threat, all we’re
left with is the jitters of anxiety. We don’t have enough time in this
episode for a full accounting of the treatments available for anxiety
disorders.

But you should know that only one-third of the people suffering from
anxiety are actually getting help, even though it’s highly manageable.
Treatment usually involves a combination of “cognitive behavioral
therapy” (aka talking to a therapist) and medications to relieve the
symptoms. Other treatments include relaxation techniques like
meditation, improved nutrition, exercise and adequate sleep.

Some medications will change your brain chemistry temporarily (and

some even dispute that), but they’re not a cure for anxiety. For that
you’ll need to change your neural pathways’ associations by learning
new behaviors through therapy. This method of learning new
everyday strategies can be slow going and repetitious, but scans show
that you can literally change your brain with enough practice.
So, do you suffer from anxiety? How do you manage it? Let us know
in the comments. And for more about brain chemistry, psychology and
total dread, make sure to visit us at howstuffworks.com.

What is 'New Car Smell?'

Ah, man. New car smell, right? Imagine it. Breathe it in. That's the
high life, yeah? Most people find the unique aroma of a new car oddly
enticing, the olfactory equivalent of snuggling into a warm laundry.
People like it so much that they even replicate it in air fresheners and
those sprays you
find in gas stations.

But what exactly is this stuff? That is tough to determine. Not

everyone reports the same sort of smell when they talk about the scent
of a new car. While scientists still aren’t sure exactly what makes new
car smell so fascinating or pleasant to humans, we do know a few
things about it: first, it’s not any one, single substance.

Cars are made of a wealth of materials, such as polyurethane or

polyester. These chemicals are designed to endure daily wear and tear
while also resisting changes in temperature and climate. So far, so
good, right? Not so fast.

While the materials themselves may not be particularly terrible, by

which I mean you can touch them without contracting some sort of
odd disease or bursting into flames, the stuff they produce can be
downright dangerous. The smell of a brand-new car is the result of
numerous chemical compounds from all these paints, plastics,
lubricants, plasticizers and sealants releasing into the air.

This process is called “outgassing.” I know. Sexy, right? These

compounds are collectively known as volatile organic compounds or
“VOCs.” They have high vapor pressure and low boiling points. This
means large numbers of molecules evaporate into the air. Some of
these VOCs don’t produce any sort of odor whatsoever, but others are
responsible for that intriguing olfactory mixtape known as new car
smell.

And as appealing as they might smell, these VOCs may also be

hazardous. Studies show that some of these volatile chemicals, such as
the ethyl benzene and formaldehyde found in paints and glues, can
cause problems like dizziness, headache, allergies or even cancer
when inhaled in large enough quantities or for long enough periods of
time.

So you can sniff that new Honda but for Pete’s sake, don’t huff it.
This has caused some scientists to compare inhaling new car smell to
sniffing glue. At this point, scientists still haven’t closed the case on
new car smell. We know some of these compounds are certainly
harmful, but experts don’t agree on exactly how harmful a given
compound might be.

We do know that a great deal of these VOCs luckily go away over

time – although they can come back on hot days when higher
temperatures increase the rate of outgassing. One last point – not all
new car interiors are created equally, VOC-wise. Some are much less
toxic than others.

You can find reports on the relative health of your car’s interior by
checking with nonprofit groups such as the Ecology Center, which
publishes a Model Year Guide to New Vehicles annually. In the
meantime, I have to ask: what does a 'new car smell' smell like to you?
Let me know in the comments, and subscribe and stay tuned for more
BrainStuff.

Do Juice Cleanses Actually Work?

- Hi BrainStuff, Cristen here. Let's talk about purity because we are

surrounded by toxic stuff in this modern world. Car emissions in our
air, factory runoff in our water. Herbicides and pesticides in our foods,
trolls in our comment sections. If our bodies are our temples, every
pizza roll is a desecration.

So how could we become pure again? That got weird. Juice cleanses
supposedly rid our bodies of toxins and restore our digestive systems.
Depending on the specific and sometimes copyrighted cleanse, you
spend a couple days to a couple weeks consuming nothing but
liquefied fruits, vegetables, and maybe some nut milk.

Since lots of people are pretty bad about eating enough fruits and
vegetables to begin with, this may mean during a juice cleanse you'd
be getting more vitamins and minerals than usual. These are
substances your body needs to turn food in to energy and to grow and
maintain cells. Some even have antioxidant properties which means
that they can help prevent cellular damage under particular
circumstances.

The benefits of these vitamins and minerals are real, but keep in mind
that your body can only process a certain amount of them at once.
After that, you'll just excrete the rest. Research does show that eating
fruits and vegetables rich in these substances can decrease some risks
of some diseases in the long run, but the key phrase, in the long run.

The best way to reap these benefits is to consistently eat five or more
servings every day. One juice binge isn't gonna do much. Consuming
nothing but juice for a few days also means you'd get a lot less fiber,
fat, and protein and way fewer calories than normal. Fats and proteins
are just as essential for healthy cellular functions as vitamins and
minerals.

And fiber in the diet is actually part of our colons normal cleansing
system. Plus, fiber can slow down your bodies uptake of sugar,
meaning your blood sugar level stay more stable. Without it, and
considering the high levels of fruit sugars and the limited calories
involved in a juice diet, you'll feel extra hungry and may experience
dizzying blood sugar spikes and crashes.

A day or two of this shouldn't do any harm to the average person, but
restricting calories and nutrients for much longer than that can trigger
starvation mode. Your body doesn't know when it's gonna get more
food, so it slows your metabolism down, and when this happens too
often, the change can be permanent.
So is it worth it? Psychologically, maybe. You'll probably lose a little
weight, due to the decrease in calories, which might
be what you're looking for. And people around the world have been
using short fasts to practice mindfulness for hundreds, if not,
thousands of years. But, physiologically, juice cleanses don't help
clear toxins out of your body.

The thing is that your liver and kidneys are natural detoxifiers. They
filter bad stuff out of your body all the time,
but they need the full compliment of nutrients provided by a healthy
diet in order to do so. But hey, I wanna know, have you tried a juice
cleanse? And if so, how did it work out? And if not, what do you eat
when you wanna feel better? Pizza rolls not included.
Let me know in the comments, and give us a like if you learned
something and subscribe so you won't miss our next video.
 How Fuel Efficient Is An Airplane?

- Hi, I'm Cristen, and this is Brain Stuff. When you think about it,
airplanes are pretty much amazing. Despite their weight, these
enormous metal contraptions can lift hundreds of people into the air,
and most of the time they can do this safely if not kind of comfortably.

Take the Boeing 747-8, for example. It has a maximum takeoff weight
of 487.5 tons. Now for comparison, that's about the same weight as
almost 140 average sized African elephants, and that's a bunch of
weight to move, and the engines need a lot of fuel to make that
happen. But how much fuel do they need, exactly?

Now before we answer that, let's ask another question. Why should we
care? Well, fuel efficiency and fuel cost is part of how an airline
determines ticket prices. So a more efficient airline can theoretically
result in lower ticket prices for you. Let's look at a plane on an
international trip to see how much fuel it uses per person. And since
we're dealing with a lot of numbers, let's set it up this way.

I'll use US standard measurements, but since the rest of the world uses
the metric system, we'll pop those up on the screen too. So save those
comments for something else. So here we go, we're ready for takeoff.
A plane like the 747-8 can carry around 63,034 gallons of fuel, giving
it the ability to make extremely long flights.

So flying from, say, LA to Australia is no problem as long as it's

gassed up. However, the plane uses approximately one gallon of fuel
every second, and this means that over the course of a 10-hour flight,
it might burn 36,000 gallons of fuel, which sounds like a lot, right?
Now, according to Boeing, this works out to approximately five
gallons of fuel per mile when the plane is in flight.

And at first this might sound like the plane gets a terrible miles per
gallon rating and isn't very efficient, but let's remember that the 747-8
isn't some four-door sedan. It can carry as many as 568 people on a
very uncomfortable flight. So how does all that fuel work out per
person? Well, let's say, for example, that there are 500 people on a
plane.

So a 747-8 is transporting 500 people one mile using five gallons of

fuel. This means that the plane is burning about .01 gallons per person
per mile. In other words, the plane is getting 100 miles per gallon per
person. For comparison, the typical car gets around 25 miles per
gallon.

So in this respect, the 747 is actually much better than a car carrying
one person, and compares favorably even if there are four people in
the car. Now of course, this isn't exactly an apples to apples
comparison for a number of reasons. But still, 100 miles per gallon per
person isn't all that bad when you consider that the 747 is flying at
about 550 miles per hour.

So how about you? How fuel efficient is your private plane? Let us
know in the comments below. And don't forget to like and subscribe
to Brain Stuff. And hey, you should also check out my channel, Stuff
Mom Never Told You.

Why Do Limbs Fall Asleep?

Hey, I'm Ben Bowlin with today's question. What makes your arms,
legs, and feet fall sleep? You get up out of your seat. All you feel from
one foot is this weird, uncomfortable tingling. Or you wake up in the
middle of the night and you can't move your arm at all. It's just kind of
flopping around behind you.

As your body parts wake up, this strange tingling sensation intensifies.
So what's going on here? Usually, you'll feel this sensation after
you've been putting pressure on part of your body. So sitting on a foot,
sleeping on an arm, or something like that. The pressure squeezes the
nerve pathways so that the nerves can't transmit electrochemical
impulses properly.

The nerve impulses carry sensation information from nerve endings in

your body to your brain. And they also carry instructions from your
brain to parts of your body. This pressure can also squeeze arteries,
and it stops them from carrying nutrients to body cells. And that's
important because without these nutrients, nerve cells may behave
abnormally.

And that can further interfere with communicating bodily sensations.

Due to both of these factors, the information transmitted from the
body part becomes kind of jumbled. This causes you to feel that weird
tingling sensation. So once you do move your foot, or stretch your
legs, or roll off that arm, the nerve impulses begin to flow properly
again.

You don't regain feeling right away, however. There's a certain

amount of readjustment time before the nerves transmit these impulses
correctly again. So this increases the intensity of the tingling causing
those familiar pins and needles sensations. The tingling might be
followed by a more uncomfortable sort of burning sensation before
your body part finally returns to normal.
So this happens because the nerves in your body are made up of
separate, long nerve cells and they carry different sorts of impulses.
These nerve fibers also have different surrounding structures. Some
fibers have thicker insulation around them, so they take longer to
begin transmitting impulses properly after they've been squeezed.

The fibers that transmit pain and temperature information are

relatively thin, though, so that's why you feel the tingling sensation
pretty quickly. Motor control fibers are thinner than the ones carrying
touch information, and that's why you can move the body part before
you've regained complete feeling in it. So eventually, all your nerve
fibers are going to return to normal.

And then you'll regain full use of your sleeping body part. Thanks so
much for watching. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you are
feeling charitable, why not like, comment, or subscribe? We'd love to
hear some stories about what has happened to your nerve endings.
But, you know, keep it PG-13, all right? That's it. We'll see you next
time.

How Do Gun Silencers Work?

- Hey I'm Josh Clark and this is Brain Stuff and this is the Brain Stuff
where I explain to you how gun silencers work. If you've ever seen a
cloak and dagger type spy movie or a movie with a hit man or
something, you might have seen them put the little barrel extender
onto the gun, and then sneak up behind someone and it made a cool
sound like (simulated gun silencer noises), which is a pretty great
silencer impression if I do say so myself.
If you wondered what was going on, or if you're a hit man looking to
keep your arms quieter, I'm going to explain to you how a silencer
works. We should probably start off by pointing out that they're not
actually called silencers. That's what people who don't know what
they're talking about call them. They're called suppressors, and for
good reason.
It's virtually impossible to fully silence a gun, because guns are loud,
and they're loud three different ways. The whole loudness starts when
the hammer hits the firing pin, makes a nice metallic sound, which
isn't too loud, but it's still a sound nonetheless. And it's one of three.
When that firing pin hits, it ignites the gunpowder located in the shell
which explodes.
It explodes into gas, pressurized gas, at about 3000 pounds per square
inch. That forcefully pushes the bullet out the end of the barrel and
makes quite a bit of sound, like kind of a deadly champagne cork
popping as the bullet comes out. That's sound number two, and that's
what silencers, I mean suppressors seek to keep down. They do it by
extending the barrel, and fattening the barrel.
What this does is it takes those gasses that are coming out of the gun
at 3000 pounds per square inch, and it gives them room to expand
inside the silencer, suppressor, or as some people who you probably
don't want to associate with call cans, right? Now when this gas
expands, it looses some of that pressure, and it decreases from 3000
pounds per square inch to about 60 when it comes out the end of the
silencer.
Now without a silencer, those explosive gasses produce a sound at
about 160 decibels. Which, by the way, is about the point where your
hearing tissue dies, and once it dies it doesn't come back. So 160
decibels is loud, ear-crushingly loud. When you have suppressor on
the end, it drops those decibels down to about 20, which is about the
sound of a very quiet whisper, in a quiet library, heard from six feet
away. Also known as (simulated silencer noises).
Yeah, there's a third sound though that a silencer can't do anything
about. You know when an airplane flies overhead and it reaches the
supersonic threshold, and it creates a sonic boom? Bullets do that too.
Except instead of a sonic boom, it's called a ballistic crack. But at any
rate, it reaches the sonic threshold when the bullet reaches a velocity
of 1100 feet per second, which is fast.
So, to prevent this ballistic crack from taking place, some
manufacturers produce ammunition that have bullets that travel at less
than 1100 feet per second. They still move pretty fast, but not fast
enough to create that little sonic boom. Hence that third sound is then
dampened. So, if you have a pretty good silencer, and ammunition that
shoots bullets out at less than 1100 feet per second, what you're left
with is a 20 decibel explosion, and just a little hammer clicking.
Believe it or not there are some downsides to all this. While you will
look cooler, like Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, who had
a silencer on the end of his shotgun, and which made his character like
80 times scarier, you're going to be giving up a little bit of power, and
a little bit of accuracy. Plus, you can still hear a bullet no matter how
silent you make a gun, if you're the one being shot at, because it
makes a horrible terrifying, unnerving zipping sound while it's coming
at you.
Believe me I've been in a ton of fire fights, and I know what I'm
talking about. - [Josh Voiceover] Man this is boring. I am such a
windbag. All I want to do these days is shave. Ever since I went to
Harrys.com and got a handle, three blades and shaving cream shipped
to my door for 15 bucks, I just want to shave all the time. And now,
with this promo code of BRAINSTUFF, anybody can get five dollars
off of their first purchase at Harrys.com.
You really can shave all the time for that kind of money, that's like
nothing. I gotta get back to this video, I gotta concentrate. - So that's
gun silencers. If you're one of those people who likes to talk about
guns and silencers and that kind of thing, leave some comments in the
comments section below, and maybe subscribe. It won't kill you.
Someone with a silencer might, but subscribing to our YouTube
channel definitely will not. As a matter of fact, it will improve your
life.

How Do You Find Water In The Wild?

Hey BrainStuff, Jonathan here. Lots of situations can leave you

stranded in the wild without supplies: Camping miscommunications,
unexpected side quests, alien abductions with imprecise return drops,
and so on. Whatever the reason you find yourself out there, you’ll
need to find water. A minimum of two quarts per day to maintain
good health – that is, to keep your blood circulating.

Which you want to do. And that brings us to today’s question: How do
you find water in the wild? But first, I should mention that this
information is for your education only. Legally speaking, I can’t
recommend that you do anything I say. Let’s assume that you can’t
find any large sources of fresh water: There’s not a raincloud in the
sky, and no streams, rivers, or lakes nearby.

You can dig a well. Look for mud, or damp soil in a dry riverbed --
there may be groundwater near the surface. Dig a hole about a foot
wide and a foot deep. If there’s water, your well will start filling up.
Even in the desert, you can try digging at the low point between
dunes, near vegetation. Put rocks in the bottom of your well to keep
sediment from stirring up into the water, and line the sides with wood
to prevent the walls from caving in.

Well water needs to be purified before you drink it. Give it a boil for
10 minutes. Even water that looks clean can harbor nasty microbes
that will make you sicker than I get after I have shrimp. But if your
wells turn up dry, you can create structures to collect water from thin
air. Like a solar still. You’ll need some plastic sheeting, a container to
collect the water, and a rock. Having a length of tubing or some
definitely-non-poisonous vegetation would be a bonus.

Choose a damp bit of ground that gets sunlight for most of the day.
Dig a bowl-shaped hole about 3 feet across and 2 feet deep. In the
bottom, dig out enough space to place your container. If you have a
tube, place one end at the bottom of the container and secure the other
end on the surface outside the hole. If you have some leaves or other
greenery that you know for sure are not toxic, tear them up and add
them to the walls of the bowl.

Place the plastic loosely over the hole and hold down the edges with
rocks. But, not the one you've put aside. That one, you want to put in
the center of the sheet so that it sags in a little more than a foot,
directly over the container. Add more rocks and soil to the edges of
the sheet for stability. The heat of the sun will evaporate moisture in
the ground, producing condensation on the plastic.

It’ll drip and collect in your container, and you can either sip it
directly through your tube or retrieve the container at sunset. If your
energy is low, you'll want to avoid all that digging. The transpiration
technique yields less water, but all it requires is tying a knot in a
plastic bag. Find a definitely-non-poisonous leafy tree or shrub that
will be in the sun for most of the day.
Tie the bag around a branch. Over the course of the day, the plant will
‘exhale’ (or transpire) water vapor that’ll collect at the bottom of the
bag. Untie it or poke a hole in it to collect the water, then tie it off
again and reuse the bag. Plants transpire a lot – about 10 percent of the
moisture in our air comes from transpiration.
Water you get from a solar still or transpiration should be safe to
drink, but it never hurts to give it a boil. But hey, have you ever been
in a survival situation? What other survival how-tos would you like us
to cover? Let us know, and to learn lots more, head to our home
planet: HowStuffWorks.com.

Why Does The Shower Get Hot When

The Toilet Is Flushed?

- Hey, Brain Stuff. Have you ever been taking a shower, you know,
gently scrubbing your body, maybe singing Boston's, ♫ More than a
feelin' ♫ when all of a sudden the water becomes scalding hot. Well,
I'm Jonathan Strickland. I'm here to tell you, that it's not just you.
Before I teach you how to fix your plumbing so your shower no
longer scorches your... flesh, please allow me to first explain how the
modern commode works.

A common configuration of pipes in homes is what's called a trunk

and branch system. It's like a tree with one large pipe, you know the
trunk, that has several smaller pipes branching off to things like your
sink, laundry machine, shower, or your toilet. If one of this pipe trees'
branches needs water, like when you flush your toilet, there's less
water available for the other branches on the tree.

There are about three gallons of water in that tank on the back of your
toilet. So when you pull the handle, it flushes all that water to send
whatever you've... disposed of down the sewer pipe. The tank
subsequently refills, taking water away from the other branches. And
here's the important part: your toilet only uses cold water.

So, the reason your shower gets hot is because the flushed toilet takes
away the cold water that was available in the system to mix together
with the hot water coming out of your shower head. And it's not just
your toilet that can contribute to this problem. Any appliance using
cold water can steal it from the shower; washing machines, sprinklers,
even bidets.

There are several ways to fix this water temperature problem. And I'm
going to present you with a few, but if you've got any other
suggestions, please let us know in the comments. The simplest method
is to adjust the valve under the toilet's tank. Most of the time these can
be tightened so the toilet takes longer to fill. Unless you're the kind of
person who is constantly discharging bodily waste, in which case you
probably need to talk to somebody, you probably don't need the tank
to be primed immediately.
This will take less cold water away from the shower. A similar simple
solution is to place an object like a brick, or I don't know, a human
skull, inside the tank so it doesn't use three gallons every time you
flush. There are more complex plumbing fixes available as well, like
increasing your trunk pipe's diameter, installing a new mixing valve,
or even renovating the whole system, but all those are gonna cost you
cash money.

And let's face it, if you wanted to spend that, you wouldn't be
watching an online video for home repair answers.

Is There A Noise Loud Enough to Kill You?

- Hello there. I'm Jonathan and this is Brain Stuff. So, if you're
standing next to a jet during takeoff, (jet engine roaring) your
eardrums will probably burst. Same thing happens when you fire a 12-
gauge shotgun right next to your ear. (gun firing) Well, when we're
exposed to exceptionally loud noises, something called the stereocilia
in our ears gets damaged.

This causes our ears to mistakenly send signals to our auditory nerve
cells. The resulting ghostly reverberations are what we call ringing
ear. Many of you have probably experienced this, possibly from going
to a really loud concert. The technical term for it is tinnitus and it's
usually temporary, unless you repeatedly damage your ears with loud
noises.
Then it develops into chronic tinnitus where you hear that dull ringing
for the rest of your life. But that's nothing compared to what really
loud noise can do to you. Noise hates you and noise can kill you. See,
sound travels in waves that enter our ear canals. Now, these waves
make our eardrums vibrate and if they're too strong, they can snap the
hair cells inside.

To avoid this, we use units called decibels to measure the power of

sound. Anything below 85 decibels is thought to be safe. But at 150
decibels, your eardrums burst, like with the jet or shotgun. And at 200
decibels, your lungs will rupture and likely kill you. That's right, the
threshold for death by sound is somewhere between 185 and 200
decibels.

That is, if your lungs don't burst first from the increased air pressure
caused by acoustic energy. This has happened during wars when high-
energy impulse noise from explosions causes something called blast
overpressure. It leaves no external injuries, but damages organs like
your ears, your lungs, and your gastrointestinal tract.

Now, acoustic weapons are actually being developed, but usually

they're for non-lethal purposes. There is one device, however, that
could most definitely kill you with sound. It's not a weapon, but the
European Space Agency has developed a huge air horn they use to test
satellites and spacecraft.

Using nitrogen gas to produce sounds up to 154 decibels, (horn

honking) they blast objects to make sure they can withstand the noise
of a rocket launching. The ESA themselves are so concerned about
how lethal this horn is, they have surrounded it with a half-meter-thick
wall made of steel-reinforced concrete coated with an epoxy resin to
reflect noise back into its chamber.
"But Jonathan," you're asking, "didn't you just say "that the threshold
for death "is between 185 and 200 decibels?" The ESA believe that
prolonged exposure to the 154-decibel horn will kill you as well,
probably rupturing your eardrums, vibrating your eyeballs, and
destroying you from the inside out.
Well, on that cheery note, why don't you tell us in the comments about
the loudest noise you've ever been exposed to. And please, do me a
solid and subscribe to our channel. The more subscriptions we get and
the more likes we get, the happier our bosses are. And the happier our
bosses are, the less likely they're gonna be pumping Erasure at 154
decibels into the whole office.

("A Little Respect" by Erasure) ♫ Try to discover ♫ A little

something to make me sweeter
Visual Vocabulary - A Method to the Madness - Speak
English Fluently and Naturally

Welcome to Visual Vocabulary, the new animated series from

EnglishAnyone.com that helps you learn useful English expressions
the same way native speakers do so you can master them quickly,
AND start using them confidently in your conversations today!

Today’s expression is “a method to the madness.” This is a very

common idiom meaning that though something my look chaotic or
disorganized, it has an underlying structure or reason for being.

Imagine walking into a science lab with lots of instruments. You see a
scientist running from table to table carrying different chemicals, and
performing different experiments.

His lab may look like “madness,” or crazy disorganization, but there’s
a clear purpose behind what he’s doing that makes sense to him.

Like the scientist’s lab, any situation that has underlying structure
despite looking problematic can be described as having a “method to
its madness.”

a method to the madness

a method to the madness

“A method to the madness” can use used in both professional and

casual situations:

A: Why are all of the dishes, cups and silverware on the floor?
B: There’s a method to my madness. I’m just reorganizing my
kitchen.

A: The boss must be crazy! He’s going to sell the most profitable
division of the company!?

B: Don’t worry! There’s a method to his madness.

A: The hockey coach’s plays look very confusing.

B: But he always wins! There must be a method to his madness.

A: Are you sure you’d rather go to school than to the beach on such a
beautiful day?

B: I know it seems like there’s no method to my madness, but I really

enjoy the class!

Well, that’s the end of this lesson. But if you feel confused about how
to get fluent, and feel like there’s no method to the madness of
learning the English language, take our free English fluency test by
clicking on the link in this video!

This quick, simple test will show you exactly what to focus on so you
can finally become a successful, confident English speaker 2, 3 or
even 10 times faster!

Click here: http://www.bit.ly/2g4PGXs to take your free test now, and

get personalized advice that will help you see immediate improvement
in your spoken English.

Have a fantastic day, be sure to click that like button, and we’ll see
you in the next lesson!

Visual Vocabulary - Back to the Drawing Board - Speak English Fluently and Naturally
Welcome to Visual Vocabulary, the new animated series from EnglishAnyone.com that helps
you learn useful English expressions the same way native speakers do so you can master them
quickly, AND start using them confidently in your conversations today!

Today’s expression is “Back to the drawing board.” This is a very common idiom meaning to
return to the planning stage of an operation after a failure.

Imagine you’re the coach of a basketball team. Your players are gathered around you during a
huddle and you draw out a play on a clipboard for the last possession of the game.

Unfortunately, the play doesn’t work and your team loses the game. You must now go back to
the drawing board – and this can be a physical board or a figurative conversation about how to
try things again – to create a new play for the next time you need it in a game.

Going back to the drawing board isn’t totally negative, though. You’re admitting to a mistake
when you use this expression, but demonstrating your willingness to learn and try again.

Back to the drawing board.

Back to the drawing board.

“Back to the drawing board” is a phrase you can use in both professional and casual situations:

A: Looks like the experiment didn’t work as planned.

B: I guess we’re going back to the drawing board.

A: You don’t really think you can make this machine fly, do you?

B: We might need to make a few trips back to the drawing board, but I’m confident we’ll make
something that can fly!

A: You made me a shirt with THREE sleeves!

B: Sorry about that! Back to the drawing board.

A: I heard their division had to scrap their marketing plan after the boss hated it.

B: Yep. They’re going back to the drawing board.

Well, that’s the end of this lesson. But if you feel like you’ve been wasting time with methods
that aren’t helping you get fluent, perhaps it’s time to go back to the drawing board with our
free English fluency test by clicking on the link in this video!

This quick, simple test will show you exactly what to focus on so you can finally become a
successful, confident English speaker 2, 3 or even 10 times faster!

Click here: http://www.bit.ly/2fzpVLa to take your free test now, and get personalized advice
that will help you see immediate improvement in your spoken English.

Have a fantastic day, be sure to click that like button, and we’ll see you in the next lesson!

Begin your FREE fluency test here: http://www.bit.ly/2fzpVLa

Visual Vocabulary - To Hit the Nail on

the Head - English Vocabulary - Speak
English Fluently
Welcome to Visual Vocabulary, the new animated series from EnglishAnyone.com that helps
you learn useful English expressions the same way native speakers do so you can master them
quickly, AND start using them confidently in your conversations today!

Today’s expression is “to hit the nail on the head.” This is a very common idiom meaning to do
or say something exactly right.
A nail consists of three parts, the point at the end, the long shaft, called the shank, and the
head.

When hitting the head of a nail with a hammer, you sometimes don’t strike the nail perfectly,
leading the nail to bend or move in a way that makes it difficult to drive into the wood. But
when you hit the nail on the head perfectly, the nail slides quickly and easily into the wood.

From this physical idea, we get the figurative idea of doing or saying something perfectly when
we “hit the nail on the head.” The “nail” in this case may be an action we perform, or
something we say that’s perfect for the situation.

to hit the nail on the head

to hit the nail on the head

“To o hit the nail on the head” can be used in both professional and casual situations:

A: Tom had a really great idea about how to solve the problem with the product.

B: Yeah! He really hit the nail on the head.

A: Your sister hit the nail on the head when she got a perfect 10 at the gymnastics competition.

B: I know! She’s been practicing for a really long time.

A: What do you think of the idea?

B: You didn’t quite hit the nail on the head, but you’re not far off.

A: I’m a bit worried about my presentation. Are you sure it’s OK?

B: Don’t worry. You’re guaranteed to hit the nail on the head!

Well, that’s the end of this lesson. But if you feel like you’re not hitting the nail on the head
with your language learning, take our free English fluency test by clicking on the link in this
video!

This quick, simple test will show you exactly what to focus on so you can finally become a
successful, confident English speaker 2, 3 or even 10 times faster!

Click here http://www.bit.ly/2g4rnZE to take your free test now, and get personalized advice
that will help you see immediate improvement in your spoken English.

Have a fantastic day, be sure to click that like button, and we’ll see you in the next lesson!

Begin your FREE fluency test here: http://www.bit.ly/2g4rnZE